"The Relational Right and the Good"
Abtract: Deontological theories interpret moral requirements as constraining the agent’s pursuit of independently valuable ends; the right is in this way taken to be prior to the good. This interpretation of the moral right does not preclude appeal to evaluative notions; but the role of evaluative conceptions within a deontological approach to morality remains poorly understood.
My aim in this talk is to offer some constructive suggestions about the deontological conception of moral value, taking the relational account as my example of a deontological approach. The relational account characterizes right actions in terms of principles that define what we owe to other individuals, just insofar as they are persons whose interests matter.
I shall identify two different kinds of moral values that might be elucidated by the relational approach, which I shall call compliance values and existence values. The goods in question include valuable ways of relating to people, such as interpersonal recognition, as well as valuable forms of moral standing, including inviolability and dignity. I shall also discuss the role that these moralized values play within the relational theory, tracing the contributions they make to the larger interpretative case for understanding interpersonal morality in relational terms.
R. Jay Wallace is the William and Trudy Ausfahl Chair in Philosophy at UC Berkeley.
